This part of what is now Kent County, Delaware was one of the state's earliest sites of English colonization. Beginning in the 1660's, plantations were established along the St. Jones River. The Dickinson family of Talbot County, Maryland was among the families who obtained early land patents in the area. Parts of Merritts, Whartons, and Youngs tracts were among the lands purchased by the Dickinsons with pounds of tobacco.